WASHINGTON — President Bush has been actively soliciting ideas and proposals about a course correction in Iraq from an array of senior aides, congressional and military leaders, Iraqi officials and others, and plans to announce a "new way forward" soon, senior administration officials said Sunday.
National security advisor Stephen Hadley and Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad sought to portray Bush's actions as a bold leadership step, not a reaction to calls for a change in strategy by the Iraq Study Group, congressional Democrats and even his own outgoing Defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld.
They said an internal Rumsfeld memo proposing major changes in Iraq policy that surfaced publicly Saturday was actually part of that initiative, not an admission of failure or a reflection of dissension.
"The president had asked agencies to begin a review of our policy in Iraq, and what Secretary Rumsfeld did, I think, very helpfully, was put together a sort of laundry list of ideas that ought to be considered," Hadley told ABC's "This Week."
"We have to make some changes," he said. "We need a new way forward in Iraq, and that's what this policy review is all about."
On CBS' "Face The Nation," Hadley said there was no timetable for the plan, but "I think it's going to be weeks, not months."
Khalilzad told CNN's "Late Edition" that the efforts by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group -- which is expected to release a report Wednesday calling for gradual troop withdrawal -- helped spur the administration into seeking its own alternatives on what to do next, particularly from top officials like Rumsfeld.
"It is energizing to review and adjust," Khalilzad said.
Bush repeatedly has rejected a wholesale pullout of troops, or what the White House calls artificially imposed deadlines, saying Thursday: "This business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all."
On Sunday, Hadley and Khalilzad emphasized that even as the president considers calls for a drawdown by the study group, Rumsfeld, Democrats in Congress and others, his main goal is to shift responsibility to Iraqi political and military leaders and force them to more quickly assume control of the country.
The White House is preparing for an important week in the increasingly contentious debate over Iraq, focusing not only on whether -- and when -- U.S. troops should be withdrawn, but on administration fears that Iraqi officials will not be able to keep their country from plunging deeper into civil war among Kurds, Shiites and Sunni Arabs.
